Welcome to Next Step Marketing News & Notes. With tightening budgets and consumers growing reluctance to make purchases, as marketers we need to do all we can to create marketing messages that maximize the chance of response. In this issue, we will highlight some ways you can get more out of your email marketing program.

For any help with your audience development, newsstand or marketing needs please contact me at 415.773.2044 or at maire@nextstepsmarketing.com

Sincerely,

Máire P. Walsh, Client Services Director

2009 Industry Calendar
	WPA SF Roundtable: Digital Magazines Oct 21, 2008, San Francisco, CA     To RSVP, please email Dave Kalman
	WIPP Women's Leadership Symposium Jan 23, 2009, San Francisco CA www.wipp.net
	Niche Magazine Conference, April 2-29 2009 Denver, CO www.nicheconference.com
	Magazines 24/7: MPA's Digital Conference March 3 2009, New York, NYC
	MPA, Retail Conference, March 30-April 1 2009 Tampa, FL. www.magazine.org
	IMAG Independent Publisher's Conference May 17-19, 2009, Boulder CO.
	PBAA, June 22-24 2009, Atlantic City, NJ www.pbaa.net

5 Tips For Improving Your Email Marketing
Tips from our upcoming Magazine PAPER Project Webinar -"Beyond the Inbox, a beginners guide to email marketing." Nov.11th, 2pm EST/ 11pm PST
 Sign up for this free webinar here

1. Constant change: While some truisms about direct marketing hold--"right offer for right audience" for instance, the world of email marketing is constantly evolving. What worked in your last campaign may very well not work in your next.
   How to deal with it: If your list is large enough, do a email A/B test against new creative and see how your control holds-up. Roll out the best winner.
   
   
2. Best day of the week to mail: Everyone wants the answer to this one. There's no silver bullet. Most mailers try to time their mail drop Tuesday-Thursday. What that essentially means is you've got a lot of competition in the mailbox during those 3 days.
   How to deal with it: Try doing some mailing on "off times." Many people read their email 7 days a week; weekend drops may perform better than mid-week drops.
   
   
3. Who sent it: Should the email be from a person on staff or should it reference the name of your publication, event, or newsletter. Many feel building a personal connection to your reader is best-someone might read an email from "Joann" before they read one from "X magazine"
   How to deal with it: This one is tricky especially if you have multiple emails going out to your list from different departments. If you have a staff member with some public recognition to your audience it's definitely worth considering. One note, some findings indicate that emails from women are more likely to be opened.
   
   
4. Think backwards: Given that subject is one of the 2 most important elements in getting your email opened and read (the other is the "from), don't wait until everything else is done to come up with your subject line. Develop a strong subject and develop your creative copy for that subject line.
   How to deal with it: Review you past results and see what your audience seems to respond to. Keep a "steal file" of subject lines that you think really worked and would like to test in an upcoming campaign.
   
   
5. Trim it down: This one is hard for audience development marketers. Size of list indicates vitality to many of us. Given that on average 20%-30% of your recipients will open your email there's lots of room to cut down your list. Why do it? For starters will negatively affect your reputation with your ISP.
   How to deal with it: Review your deliverability reports, segment your list based on active, semi-active, inactive profiling; develop a specific campaign to re-engage your semi-active names (e.g.-offer them the opportunity to change how frequently they hear from you--monthly instead of weekly). For your inactives let them know that unless they tell you differently they are being removed from your list.
   
   

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